Don’t. Don’t. Don’t.My heart pumped the word—the warning rather than a beat.
“Is that okay?” His low voice rumbled.
I grimaced and closed the final binder, stacking it neatly on top of the others.Get over yourself, Daisy. Max is helping you. He’s your friend, and he’s helping you.I needed to stop pushing Max away. I hated that I was doing it, but I couldn’t stop. It felt like instinct. Like self-preservation. Like I didn’t know how I’d recover if he abandoned me too.
“Of course, it is,” I said as I finally straightened and turned, my chest pinching when I saw him.
Gone were his business casual clothes from earlier, replaced now with a pair of jeans that fit him just right and a plain gray tee that made it clear Max worked just as much on his physique as he did on his business.
My mouth slowly dried, my eyes roaming like they were my hands, down the column of his neck, along the stretch of his shoulders, over the muscled swells of his pecs. Ache pooled in my stomach—unreasonable, second-trimester hormonal ache. He was so close I could touch him. So close I could reach for himand pull him to me. So close I could search for the look that was in his gaze earlier when he saw all my lingerie spilled on the bed.
I wonder how that look would change if he saw the lingerie on me.
I was about to apologize again when his warm gaze sank into mine, the weight of it like a stone rippling through everything I wanted to say.
“How are you? Was your day okay?”
“Yeah.” I found my voice. “It was good. Erica was great.” I folded my arms over myself, and his stare sank to my chest.
Without warning, my nipples pebbled, heat spilling into my veins. My breath caught. Did he know…could Max see how attracted I was to him? Would he think this was why Todd left me? My heart started to pound. Did he know—had Todd remembered?
No. My chin lowered, and I realized what had caught his attention. I had on a large MaineStems tee that I’d found.
“It was sitting on top of that box,” I explained, pointing to the cardboard box that was half open and filled with T-shirts. “I hope it’s okay I borrowed it. I got some marinara on the shirt Frankie loaned me,” I said, not the least bit embarrassed for making a mess at lunch because the sandwich had been so good. Thankfully, the maternity leggings had been spared.
“You’re welcome to anything up here, Daze. It’s all yours.”
It was when he said these things that I started to shut down—to shut him out. “Max?—”
“I also got you these,” he interrupted, extending his hand, a large Target bag suspended from his fingers.
I stared at the bag for so long, Max gave up waiting for me to take it and instead set it on the ground. I didn’t need to look to know what was inside. While I’d beenorienting,he’d gone out and bought me clothes this afternoon, even though I’d insisted…What? That I had lingerie that I could wear?
“Why?” I croaked, finally bringing my eyes to his.
“You have no clothes here, Daze. It’s just a few things, and if you really want, I’ll take it out of your first paycheck.”
He wouldn’t. I already knew it. He’d tell me he did, or he’d tell me he forgot, but the very last thing Max would do was ever take money from me for the things he’d just purchased.
“And if I ask you to take them back?” I wasn’t going to, but I wanted to know, on principle, just how far he was willing to take this.
The angle of his jaw tightened. “I’d ask if you plan on doing the deliveries in your lingerie.”
My brow arched. “Why? Would you plan on charging more?”
“No.” His voice lowered, his eyes piercing. “I’d need to plan on who is going to bail me out of jail for blinding customers.”
Air sealed into my lungs, hot and buzzing inside my chest. I’d never had someone be protective of me like this before.Or was it possessive?My heart lurched. Whatever it was, I craved the dark heat of it wrapping over my skin. I craved this look in his eyes that settled low in my stomach and sent ripples of longing out over my skin.
Todd was never the jealous type. Maybe it was because he knew I wasn’t that kind of person, but also, he wasn’t that kind of person. He liked it when other guys looked at me. When his friends or his parents’ friends’ eyes lingered just a little too long, he liked knowing they wanted something that was his.
I didn’t. I liked this. I craved this, even though it felt reckless and unreasonable for someone whose relationship—whose planned future—turned to ashes a week ago.
For someone who was pregnant with another man’s baby.
The tension stretching between us snapped like a hot rubber band, making me flinch.What was I thinking, looking at him like that? Thinking of him…My gaze sank to the bag of new clothes.
“Do you want me to take them back?” He asked roughly. “Because I will if you really want.”
